With recent attempts to use the cutaneous sense as a sensory channel in place of vision, it has become of interest to learn what limits the form sensing capabilities of touch as compared with vision. Although a number of factors (discussed in the Introduction) would seem to limit the tactile perception of form, the investigator has argued the extreme position that many of the facts relating to tactile form perception are understandable strictly in terms of the limited spatial resolution of the cutaneous sense. Should this position prove false with further experimental testing, the way in which it fails should be useful in developing a more complete understanding of tactile perception, for it provides a point of reference which, up until now, has been lacking in the field. The basic strategy of most of the experiments is to compare form perception using touch with that using foveal vision under conditions where vision, by hypothesis, mimics touch--namely, viewing patterns from such a distance that the patterns are filtered of their higher spatial frequency components. Tactile stimulation will be accomplished using either video-controlled vibrotactile displays or finger scanning of embossed patterns produced by the process of photographic engraving. In addition to the broader issue, the experiments address a number of specific issues such as typographical determinants of tangibility (legibility), the superior tangibility of braille characters, the existence of and conditions for cutaneous hyperacuity, and the tactile perception of texture.